For the next two days, the group journeyed east and slightly south. The trail took them from one rocky alpine valley to another, with no sign that the mountains would ever end. When they met other travelers, they were told they would be going down soon enough — the trail didn’t follow any of the valleys southward because of impassable gorges.
The group was in good spirits, and Ilika used rest stops and evenings around the campfire to challenge them with complex logic problems. Some required the rules of inference they had learned earlier, and others needed the new quantification rules. When they could think about such things no longer, they got out The Adventures of Godi and Tima and took turns reading whole chapters with good story-telling voices and dramatic flair.
They wondered about Kali and her new path, but knew it was no longer in their hands.
Finally, on the third day out from Nug, they came to a pass at six thousand eight hundred feet that took their breath away. The mountains abruptly ended, and a dry canyon of twisted and tortured rock outcroppings, through which the trail wound, quickly dropped several thousand feet, leveling out in a prairie far below.
“Wow,” Boro breathed. “Now I know what people were talking about.”
“Do we still have that rope?” Miko asked with round eyes. “We might need it!”
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Rini chuckled. “It’s in the bottom of my bag, but I don’t think it’s long enough.”
“Mati . . .” Ilika began.
“I know. If she started running, I’d never be able to stop her.”
Buna raised her eyebrows. “She’ll do better than Noni’s wagon would!”
“This is why no one brings a cart up here,” Boro said calmly, gazing at the steep trail below. “Anything that got rolling would soon be splinters.”
From the shade of a pine tree, the eleven travelers chewed on stale hardtack and discussed the path before them. At several points in the canyon, they could see sections of the trail, usually switching back and forth across a steep and dangerous slope. At many places it was completely hidden, winding through the rocks or disappearing for a time into a side canyon.
Sata received a piece of dry cheese. “This is natural, right Ilika?”
“Very natural. It’s probably the edge of a tectonic plate, an ocean plate colliding with a continental plate, I would guess.”
“A
what?” Buna asked with her squirrelly expression.
“Okay, geology lesson tonight.”
After everyone had eaten and rested, Ilika looked at the steep trail again while rubbing the knot in his stomach. “Tight reins, Mati. Dead slow, and two people walking by Tera’s head on all the steep parts.”
“That’s every inch,” Sata observed with a wrinkled brow.
Boro grinned at her, and he and Toli silently volunteered for duty, stepping beside Tera.
After taking some deep breaths and remembering the circle of thieves, the high tide, and the wolf, Mati nodded that she was ready.
Kibi led the way. Ilika walked just in front of the donkey and her helpers.
Neti and Miko brought up the rear.
Unlike most of the rocky paths in the mountains, this trail soon turned to crumbly yellow dirt, and every few yards little gullies forced the travelers to step over. Boro and Toli quickly gave up walking beside Tera, and joined Ilika on the trail in single file.
To Mati’s delight, Tera seemed perfectly comfortable with the steep path and made no attempt to break into a run, so she relaxed the reins a little. Tera
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was not at all bothered by the little gullies, and could easily step over.
When they paused at the first level place, Ilika looked at the donkey with greater respect. “There are many things I don’t know about donkeys.”
“She’s a good donkey, but I still want someone walking in front of her,”
Mati said.
“You’ve got it!” Rini said.
Boro smiled at the slender lad, but made sure someone else was in front of the donkey also.
They continued downward in a lighter mood, and soon entered the first of the jumbles of huge boulders, many towering ten or fifteen feet over the trail.
Miko easily climbed one of the jumbles, then found he could leap from one boulder to another high above the other walkers.
“Are you having fun, Miko?” Neti asked with a grin, shielding her eyes and looking up to see the love of her life standing tall on a boulder, scanning the trail ahead.
“I’m king of the world!” he called down. “There’s a short level stretch ahead, then a steep switchback.”
Miko saw several boulders laid out before him like stepping stones. Some of the gaps required a big leap, so he got a running start.
Moments later, Neti heard his yell for help, then a cry of pain, and finally the thud of something heavy smashing onto the rocks far below. Her blood froze in her veins as she screamed her defiance to the universe.
“MIKO,
NO!”
Her scream pierced the silence and echoed through the ravines and gullies of the tumbled land. She bolted forward, almost knocking Tera and Mati off
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the trail, tears filling her eyes and panic filling her mind. Boro caught her, but was barely able to hold her.
With a sinking feeling of despair, Ilika worked his way through the rocks with Kibi close behind. They soon discovered the place, and it was immediately clear what had happened. The last boulder of the outcrop was just a finger of rock, too far from the others to easily jump to, and too small to land upon. The ground was a good twenty feet down, covered with sharp, broken boulders.
As Neti screamed and fought against Boro, Ilika and Kibi picked their way down to Miko’s resting place. Blood poured from gashes on his head and arms, and his breath came in gasps with a gurgling sound.
“Help Neti get down here!” Ilika yelled as he quickly removed his bracelet and placed it on Miko’s arm. It emitted several complex tones, causing Ilika to cringe.
All Boro’s strength barely kept Neti from flinging herself down to Miko’s side. “MIKO!” she screamed as she landed in the rocks beside him, scraping and bruising herself but not feeling it.
“Take his hand and talk to him, Neti,” Ilika said, his voice shaking. “You don’t have long.”
Trembling, Neti took his limp hand in hers. “Miko! Please be okay, Miko.
Please . . .” Her words quickly became deep sobs.
Kibi looked at Ilika questioningly. He shook his head slowly in response.
Miko’s eyelids fluttered as he gasped for a breath, struggled to say his beloved’s name one last time, then lay still.
“He’s asleep,” Neti said through her sobs. “He’ll be okay when he wakes up.”
For the next hour or more, Neti stayed with Miko, believing him asleep.
She spoke to him, promising him that sleep would heal him, that he would be leaping from boulder to boulder again soon.
Buna, Sata, and Misa climbed down to be with their friend. Taking their cue from Ilika, they let Neti continue to believe that Miko was merely asleep.
Mati and Rini found a place where Tera could get some grass, then found a way down to the scene of the accident that Mati, with help, could navigate.
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Toli couldn’t find the courage to join them. Miko had been his friend, even when no one else wanted anything to do with him. Now, with Miko gone, he suddenly felt very alone, so he sat on a rock near Tera and silently cried.
Ilika made himself walk around the area to see where they could camp. He found a level place close to the outer edge of the hillside where dirt had piled up against a small rock outcropping, hidden from the trail by the huge boulders.
The place was also, for the moment, hidden from his students.
Ilika fell to his knees and couldn’t stop tears from running down his face.
With clenched fists he looked up at the sky and let all his guilt and frustration show for whomever might be watching.
About a quarter hour later, after wiping his face on his sleeve, he returned to the site of the tragedy and sat down by Kibi, who took his hand.
“I think she’s starting to see,” Kibi whispered.
“Miko, please wake up . . .” Neti said in a pleading but helpless tone.
Ilika squeezed Kibi’s hand, and then went and sat near Neti. Buna and Sata were still flanking their stricken friend, touching her constantly to remind her she was not alone.
“He’s not gonna wake up, is he?” she asked no one in particular in a helpless voice.
“Not in this world, Neti,” Ilika whispered softly. “He’s going to wake up in another world, and he will never forget you, his beloved from his mortal life.
And someday you will join him there, and you can both remember all the sweet times you shared.”
Neti was starting to see all the blood and bruises. Miko’s skin was slowly turning gray, cold, and stiff. She had held his hand many times when he was asleep, but it didn’t feel the same. Suddenly she dropped his lifeless hand and started crying deeply, clutching onto Buna and Sata fiercely.
As evening crept over the land, Neti stayed beside Miko’s lifeless body and took tiny steps toward accepting what had happened. Kibi replaced Buna, and a bit later Misa replaced Sata. Mati sat on a rock nearby, but because of her knee, was unable to comfort her friend while Neti was on the ground at Miko’s
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side.
Most of those not comforting Neti started to move rucksacks to the campsite. Boro took the bronze pot and shuffled down the trail, returning about half an hour later with water. Toli silently gathered some sticks for a fire. After getting directions from Boro, Rini guided Tera down to the spring for a drink, then back up to the camp. No one felt like cooking. A few chewed on hardtack or dried apples.
As darkness approached, Ilika and Boro lifted their fallen friend and carried him to the campsite. Neti walked along behind.
“We’re going to need a fire all night to keep animals away,” Ilika said softly to Boro as they placed Miko’s broken body where a boulder would protect it on one side.
Boro nodded, picked helpers, and looked around for the best source of firewood.
Neti knelt down on the ground beside Miko’s body and once again poured out her grief to anyone in the world who cared to listen.
Deep Learning Notes
In the last two centuries, we have gotten used to building roads where we want them, moving as much earth and rock as necessary using explosives and oil-powered machines. Railroads require this, and rubber wheels appreciate it. Before then, road building followed the lay of the land. The only exceptions were minor obstacles that a few men with shovels could remove, and that was only done on wagon roads, not mountain trails.
Miko’s mistake was allowing himself to “play” in a situation that was too dangerous. Play and self-expression are wonderful things, but require a fair amount of safety. One of the main differences between a true “child” and a
“young adult” is that the child cannot usually make the distinction between safe and dangerous situations. Miko let himself be a “child” at the wrong moment.
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Neti’s belief that Miko was asleep, and would be okay when he awoke, is the first step in the grieving process, denial. When a thought or perception is too painful to accept, the human mind blocks it out and rejects it. This is probably necessary to avoid insanity.
It is interesting to note which of the students were able to partially ignore their own reactions to Miko’s death in order to support Neti, help Mati, and find a campsite. Which student was completely unable to help with anything?
In this scene, we see Ilika’s first religious statements concerning Miko’s future. How convinced did Ilika sound that his beliefs were correct?
The practice of protecting a dead body from wild animals has long been a human custom, whenever it was possible. Some other mammals and birds do the same. This allows us some time to adjust to the new situation and grieve slowly, even though it does nothing to “save” the person.
